Quarterly news for the mobile Linux community

The highest performing desktop processor on the planet for extreme gamers and demanding enthusiasts

Attila the Hun Comes to Life through Cost-Effective Tools.

Gamers take note: the Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 Processor Extreme Edition banishes complacency and injects a heady shot of pure rocket fuel into the cylinders of high-end gaming machines. At the wheel, keenly aware of the thrumming of the high-performance processing engine under his control, Alex Garfield, executive director of Team Evil Geniuses.

This paper highlights the initial performance result of Oracle Applications Standard Benchmark (OASB) achieved on the IBM x3850 M2 system powered by the Intel(R) Xeon(R) 7400 Processor Series. The IBM(R) Oracle(R) International Competency Center (ICC) developed this ground-breaking batch-oriented result working closely with Intel and Oracle.

With end-to-end BI solutions from the data center to the desktop, Microsoft and Intel help IT connect more users with the actionable real-time insight they need to drive business performance. SQL Server® 2008 offers key BI integration points with Microsoft® Office 2007, making it easy for users to leverage business intelligence applications, and Intel® processors provide the performance to support more users, data, and analyses.

Data you can’t use is just a waste of disk storage. But in recent years, the explosion of data generated and captured from automated business processes has tended to outstrip the enterprise’s ability to use it. To meet this challenge, Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 provides a trusted, productive, and intelligent data platform that enables you to run your most demanding mission-critical applications.

Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 consolidation options and strategies, plus the performance advantages of new multi-core Intel® processor-based servers help deliver more business advantage from SQL Server 2008 applications at lower TCO. Consolidating SQL Server 2008 on powerful Intel-based servers can increase utilization, lower data center management and power costs, and better protect business data.

As e-commerce and real-time transactions become an increasingly vital part of the business model, businesses are dependent on online transaction processing (OLTP) systems to manage millions of transactions and update database records instantly and accurately. Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 running on Intel® processor-based servers provides leading performance, massive data-handling capacity, reduce the cost and complexity of high availability OLTP applications.

This issue covers a wide range of technology advances, including Havok's real-world physics breakthroughs, behind-the-scenes digital movie making, and speculations about the Uncanny Valley hypothesis. (Don't know what that is? You will now.)

The Threading Methodology used at Intel has four major steps: Analysis, Design & Implementation, Debugging, and Performance Tuning. These steps are used to create a multi-threaded application from serial base code. While the use of software tools for the first, second, third, and fourth steps is well documented, this white paper is one of the few to address how to do the Design & Implementation part of the process.

Issue 14 of Intel® Software Insight magazine is all about blurring the lines of our traditional technology silos. Whether it's the melding of green technologies with tail-kicking power and performance, or the ability to mash up your own unique browser experience, this issue isn't about the "why"... it's about the "why not?"

Announced at this Summit, the soon-to-be-released Configuration Manager 2007 Service Pack 1 introduces a new integration with Intel(R) Active Management Technology v3, creating the ability to diagnose, repair, and remotely access and manage desktop systems. Can you say on-demand and anytime-access?

Co-presented by Microsoft and Intel at the Summit, this session material shows how your IT department can increase productivity and even save you thousands of hours a year, plus why 25 pilot programs on two continents all chose Intel vPro technology. NOTE: this is a large file.

Learn how Fonality PBXtra* -- a hybrid-hosted VoIP phone system based on Intel(R) multi-core technology (and available at Intel(R) BX)just beat Microsoft and Allwork in their VoIP solution technology. Get the test lab scores and summaries of the most popular VoIP phone systems, and let the author explain why he includes this advice: "My recommendation...is to go with PBXtra."

Ready for inspiration now? Read how the Intel® Centrino® with vPro Technology and Intel® Core™2 Processor with vPro Technology enable remote network PC management and reduce desk-side visits. And learn how the combination of Microsoft System Center* 2007 and Intel® technology provide a more secure infrastructure, improve user uptime, and increase automation. Tracking link created for April 2008 Go Software layout

The year 2010 is right around the corner, and is when Intel will introduce a new set of instructions called Intel(R) Advanced Vector Extensions (Intel(R) AVX). This white papergives an overview of Intel AVX capabilities, including how it will contribute to the performance requirements of applications such as financial analysis, media content creation, natural resource industry, and HPC computing. Tracking link created for April 2008 Go Software layout

Concurrent computing is not an easy thing to manage. Developers must ensure that data is accessed in proper sequence to prevent two concurrently executing tasks from overwriting the same bit of data. Read how a methodology called Software Pipelines provides a simple way for business applications to implement concurrent computing while maintaining execution priorities and simplicity of development. Tracking link created for April 2008 Go Software layout

In today's business world, it's paramount that wired and wireless PCs be remotely managed by a single IT console. Read how today's PCs deliver down-the-wire security and manageability capabilities,even if hardware has failed, the operating system is unresponsive, software is disabled, the desktop PC is powered off, or the notebook’s management agents have been disabled. Tracking link created for April 2008 Go software Layout

Originally presented at PACT 2007, this 91-pager is part overview, part tutorial on Intel® Threading Building Blocks. Read the key points about why parallel programming is necessary... and tricky. Then get tips and code samples to help you through it all. Tracking link created for April 2008 Go Software Layout

Electrify your senses with this special Game Developer Conference edition of Intel® Software Insight magazine. From the caffeine-fueled development labs of leading game firms to the lofty heights of photo-realistic flight simulation, it’s a heady journey. Tracking link created for April 2008 Go Software Layout

This 12-page article is from Multi-Core Programming. It addresses memory and cache-related issues, including best practices, illustrations, and code samples to help you optimize software performance running on multiple cores.

This paper provides a comparison to the XML processing capabilities from the open source Apache Xalan* project; as it contains both eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) processing(XSLTC*), XPath (Xalan-Java*), with parsing and schema validation processing (Xerces2-J*).

According to IDC, the HPC technical server market, which is 50% compute clusters, is growing dramatically in the divisional and workgroup areas. In this reprint from Dell Power Solutions, read how the Intel® Cluster-Ready Program is helping organizations design and build seamless, compatible configurations.

Being reactive, rather than proactive, is the bane of many SMBs. And Silicon East was no exception... until recently, that is. Read how this small IT shop went from fire-fighting mode to Zen actualization by combining Intel® vPro® processor technology with its plethora of complex security applications. The net-net: remote management and client security has never been easier.

This year, nine unique Intel experts will be presenting eight fascinating GDC sessions. From discussions about Intel graphics to ray tracing to realistic rendering on multi-core processor-based systems, these guys have tons of technical and strategic information to share. Read about their sessions and get to know a little bit about each of them. We're confident you'll be as pleasantly surprised as we were.

Eco-technology is not only a hip buzz word, it's a mandated focus for our technology-relient world. Read how Intel's "eco" initiatives are helping to re-lay our computing foundations, thereby eradicating decades of energy-hog behavior.

"Silicon cadence" refers to Intel’s strategy of introducing a new microarchitecture linked with a new generation of silicon process technology approximately every two years. Read how this predictable pace helps create technological foundations for the future.

This presentation incorporates real-world customer experiences to addresses the business benefits of implementing Oracle Real Application Clusters on Intel® 64-bit servers.

This high-level primer introduces the Predictive Enterprise - an emerging model that uses the convergence of technology to make your business proactive instead of reactive.

Like many IT organizations, Intel IT is under intense pressure to increase data center performance and capacity while driving down cost. Read how Intel IT is using key technologies and architectures--virtualization, utility computing and Intel® multi-core processors--to meet these challenges.

Intel® Active Management Technology, a feature on Intel® Centrino® Pro and Intel® vPro(TM) processor technology, allows IT to manage assets, remotely detect and fix problems, and protect their networks from threats. This 84-page paper provides setup and configuration instructions that make Intel® AMT features accessible to management applications.

This 14-page paper shows how a multi-tier datacenter workload (previously requiring hundreds of platforms) can potentially map onto a few single-socket tera-scale CMP platforms running Virtual Machines, thereby creating a Datacenter-on-Chip (DoC) architecture. Performance opportunities and challenged are discussed.

In this case study, explore how ABAQUS, Inc., along with the help of Intel MKL and Intel VTune Performance Analyzer, offers a compelling solution for businesses that often need to simulate the physical response of structures and solid bodies to load, temperature, contact, impact, and other environmental conditions.

Updated from its 2006 original version, this 67-page tutorial teaches you how to use Intel® Threading Building Blocks to leverage multi-core performance. Beginning with the high-level basics and taking you into more advanced features and tasks, you will learn key points to improve your code for multi-core processors.

Efficiency is the name of the game these days, particularly with the increasingly ubiquitous mobile platforms. This 30-page paper examines software methodologies, designs, and software-development tools that can be used to improve the energy efficiency of application software and extend mobile platform battery time.

The Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) platform is of increasing importance as a target system for game developers. But with its potential opportunities come a number of unique considerations and challenges in game design. This 10-page paper covers the best practices for ensuring a good user experience, illustrating how a single version of a game can span both the UMPC and traditional PC platforms.

In the past, high performance computing required expensive supercomputers, ginormous amounts of power and cooling to run, and whole teams of engineers to write programs for them. Today, multi-core platform technology offers the possibility of using HPC in any environment, from an enterprise data center to a designer’s desktop. In this white paper from Intel and Microsoft, learn how tools, including the Intel Math Kernal Library, are bringing HPC to the mainstream.

Intel IT performed an extensive evaluation of Microsoft Windows Vista operating system, analyzing its potential to lower TCO, improve employee productivity, and facilitate the adoption of other technologies. Read the results of this deployment (including the obstacles) to get a sense of what it will be like when your company adopts this OS.

The combination of hardware and software technologies, coined "disease management solutions", entered the healthcare scene with the hope of helping patients and physicians improve outcomes and control costs. Though the endless complexities of our healthcare systems have been difficult to overcome, technology now is opening up the real possibility of helping people at the right time.

Question: How many 45-nanometer transistors can fit side-by-side across the width of a human hair? Answer: Two thousand. Find this and other fun facts in this one-pager.

In this white paper, learn about the Penryn family of desktop and server processors, all measuring in at 45 nanometers and offering expanded power management and energy efficiency.

In this article from Intel Premier IT Magazine, read how Intel's introduction of 45-nanometer technology represents the most significant change in transistor technology since the 1960's, and still adheres to Moore's Law.

This issue of Intel(R) Software Insight magazine contains a wealth of articles on all things future, as well as the opportunity to share your software story with 250,000 of your closest friends.

In this technology brief, learn how Intel IT demonstrated an average 1.6x performance improvement and up to a 30 percent cost reduction with the Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor X5355 running at 2.66 GHz as compared to its predecessor, the Dual-Core Intel Xeon processor 5160 running at 3.0 GHz, by using a performance-driven methodology to compare the operating costs of server virtualization platforms.

In this case study, learn why Silicon East believes Intel vPro processor technology is the missing link between PC hardware and software-based management applications. Further, learn how using Intel vPro processor technology has helped Silicon East improve response times, lower service costs, and deliver even more compelling services to clients which has allowed them to grow business with existing resources, maintain world-class service, and still reduce stress on technicians.

In this brochure, learn how Desktop PCs with Intel vPro technology offer innovative security, performance and remote repair features that can help you spend less time dealing with technology issues, so you can spend more time on what you do best — running your business.

In this product brief, learn how Quad-core-based servers provide a new level of value for clients, delivering three to five times the performance of systems that were offered just 12 to 18 months ago. Further, these new systems enable clients to significantly grow compute power by upgrading or replacing their current systems while maintaining the same hardware footprint or consolidating applications onto fewer, more powerful servers.

In this case study, learn how medical specialists use Intel® vPro™ processor technology to reduce downtime and improve services. Also, read how Intel vPro is helping to meet users needs as well as industry requirements while, at the same time, saving money on IT.

In this white paper, learn how better IT capabilities – at Lower cost – let you focus on business. Explore how Intelligent Office's "virtual office" concept has taken off and has allowed them significant growth nationwide by providing their clients superior capabilities seamlessly at low costs.

What are the concerns when creating applications for today's mobile devices? See how platform awareness, context awareness, and adaptation play roles in the development of applications for the next-generation of mobile devices.

Content is king, and technologies that give users anytime, portable access to media have proven immensely popular. Still, most devices have focused on stored content—until now. In this article we discuss the next generation of portable devices offering access to live media. Move over Ultra Mobile PCs, Mobile Internet Devices are coming!

In this case study, find out how Intel(R) Solution Services helped a major R&D company incorporate virtualization at the enterprise level to consolidate its 2,000+ servers.

Take a look at the latest Intel® mobile, desktop, and server products that you can use to build a sustainable advantage for your small- or medium-sized business. From basic systems to advanced computing, find the Intel® platform that will make your business software sing.

School district computer systems have challenges, including non-standard security measures, huge file buildups, staggering energy usage, and the need to keep PCs alive for at least 5 years. Read how one technology director combined Intel(R) vPro(tm)technology with a software solution to amplify security, decrease TCO, and increase IT productivity without increasing his resources — which was a staff of three.

Open Source Cluster Application Resources (aka "OSCAR"), is an open-source project comprising software for building high-performance clusters. The goal: make clustering a freely available and easily configurable option for systems based on Linux*. Read how the informal Open Cluster Group is helping to bring Linux into the mainstream of enterprise computing, working with cost-effective Intel® Xeon® and Itanium® processor-based platforms.

This IDC White Paper examines the market opportunity for enterprise Linux products and services and the position of Red Hat and Intel’s collaborative solution set in that market. It discusses the key resources Red Hat provides to ISVs to help them port and build applications to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and presents IDC’s opinion on Red Hat and Intel’s value proposition for ISV partners.

The Intel® Performance Libraries consist of the Intel® Math Kernel Library (Intel® MKL) and the Intel® Integrated Performance Primitives (Intel® IPP). In this white paper, learn about the benefits of using Intel Performance Libraries to boost application performance as well as the opportunities for boosting performance.

In this paper we've documented tips and tricks to help you use Intel® Performance Primitives (IPP) to increase the performance of your applications. Learn everything from aligning memory to improve performance, using external buffers in sequential procedures, using integer fixed point arithmetic instead of FP computation in Intel® StrongARM* (Intel SA) architectures and much more.

In this white paper, read about a rapid-response tool that helps employees request and receive data in real-time meetings, so that they’re 20 percent more likely to have the answer before the meeting ends. Also, learn how that will impact Intel’s bottom line and if that impact is sufficient to justify implementing the tool throughout Intel’s global operations.

In this white paper, learn how high-density data centers will provide the DC owner with a reduced cost of ownership when compared with that of a low density DC. Also explore the risks and ergonomic negatives to a high density configuration, and how these can be overcome by proper design and recognition that modern data centers do not require continuous staffing.

In this white paper, learn how to move from Unix to Linux virtually pain-free by partnering with Intel and Novell®. Read how the combination of Intel server technology and SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server can produce lower costs, higher levels of performance and responsiveness, more flexibility, better security and manageability.

In this case study, learn how Intel's IPP library helped Cognitec achieve enormous gains in the performance of FaceVACS as well as cross-platform and cross-processor support. Also learn how Intel IPP increased customer satisfaction which in turn led to a boost in sales for Cognitec.

In this white paper, explore how optimizing IT investment requires understanding its value to the business through measuring critical factors such as productivity. Accurate employee productivity measurements can help drive an organization’s success by enabling better decisions based on objective data. Intel IT has defined a measurement strategy and framework to help justify projects that deliver employee productivity as a key business value outcome.

In this white paper, learn how Intel IPP 4.0 provides the capabilities key to successful cross-platform software product development. With a broad range of functions implemented across several Intel architectures, Intel IPP enables developers to get products to market quickly. Intel IPP functions share a common API to further ease the development process. Each Intel IPP function is optimized to the specific supported processors to deliver high application performance.

Read how RadTIME, Inc. used Intel® IPP to combine 2D and 3D elements in one tool, eliminating many time-consuming rendering steps, reducing production costs and TTM, and possibly even causing a small revolution in the video industry.

Embracing several forward-looking initiatives, including cross-organizational IT partnering, improving technology education, disaster planning and mitigation, and onshoring (yes, the opposite of offshoring), Northrop Grumman has refocused on the fundamentals.

Embracing several forward-looking initiatives, including cross-organizational IT partnering, improving technology education, disaster planning and mitigation, and onshoring (yes, the opposite of offshoring), Northrop Grumman has refocused on the fundamentals.

Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDq) is another breakthrough technology from Intel that helps offload network I/O data processing from the virtual machine monitor software to the network silicon.

In this article from Intel Premier IT Magazine, read how Intel expertise and software products helped Pixar reengineer RenderMan to take advantage of multi-threading programming techniques and energy-efficient Intel® multi-core processors.

Penryn is based on Intel(R) 45nm transistor technology that allows for processors with nearly twice the transistor density and drastically reduced electrical leakage. Get an overview of the family and its power-management enhancements, as well as knowledge of Intel(R) SSE4 instructions.

This paper presents solutions to the performance-monitoring problems that developers face while working with symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) and Hyper-Threading Technology-enabled multi-core systems.

Locking code appears frequently because Intel's Core Architecture requires multi-threaded software applications for optimum performance. This white paper describes the different methods of locking in Microsoft Windows* and their associated performance costs.

This comprehensive solution combines three levels of virtualization — at the chip level, at the server level, and at the application level — to transform the cost/benefit calculations for Java* virtualization.

Check out how you can consolidate your computing power onto fewer systems with the new Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processor 7300 series.

Many industry experts suggest that liquid cooling might solve the server density challenge. Intel engineers decided to study air cooling more closely. This paper presents the results of four case studies that show it is possible to use air cooling to support much higher densities of current and anticipated server technology at relatively low cost per kW of IT equipment load.

When designing a grid, you must consider many factors because each one has an effect on its scalability and expansion capability. Check out this tutorial to learn about these factors and for strategies on designing a scalable grid.

Globalization has opened the market and brought new customers, relentless margin pressure, and the complexities of worldwide supply and distribution. By incorporating communication capabilities throughout your enterprise and linking them to an integrated infrastructure, you can create end-to-end visibility.

Using RFID (radio-frequency identification) for managing mobile and static inventory is a revolutionary reality. You can now take advantage of this complex technology without the risk.

More than ever, multithreading is a requirement for good performance of systems with multi-core chips. This chapter introduces Intel® Threading Building Blocks and how it stands out relative to other options for C++ programmers.

Do your personnel spend time looking for data they need from another person or another employee's computer? The right technology can help end delays, minimize mistakes and, just as important, avoid devastating data loss.

Learn how Intel's deep contributions to open-source projects on power, performance, virtualization, wireless, graphics—and more—unleash the power of Linux* solutions on Intel processor technologies.

Learn how a proposed conbination of para-virtualization and hardware-assisted virtualization can achieve equivalent or better performance than software-only para-virtualization, taking full advantage of each technology.

Individual desktop computers are the workhorses of most small businesses. But their ability to store large amounts of data while running smoothly is limited. If you've noticed such limitations—or if you anticipate a future need to run more applications—it's probably time to buy a server.

This technical white paper presents a methodology that has been used to successfully thread many applications and discusses the tools that can assist you in developing multi-threaded applications.

Did you know that well crafted emails often incur higher response rates than direct-mail campaigns? The right copy can build your brand or service, but the wrong words can alienate your prospects and customers. Keep your business identity out of the SPAM graveyard.

This technology brief summarizes how the Intel® Active Management Technology solves our unsolvable IT challenges. Yes, you can have faster asset management, reduce downtime with fewer deskside visits, and improve malware prevention and response.

Learn how Intel IT used the Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® processor 5300 series to consolidate test workloads from eight physical machines into virtual machines (VMs) running on a single server. The dual-socket server completed the workloads 66 percent faster than the original eight servers based on the Intel® Pentium® III processor, using 86 percent less power per workload.

Find what you're looking for in this catalog of server software applications that have been optimized to run on Intel® dual-core platforms.